Asking is the Answer

There is a bunch of stuff that I don’t know.
And if I don’t know something, I don’t pretend I do.
No one has all the answers (not even Google).

But everyone can find the answer — if they’re willing to look (and willing to ask).

If I don’t know something I will go look it up on the internet, compare and contrast a few different resources, and come away with some new knowledge I can go back and use in my earlier conversation.

In conversations with my friends as well as in business meetings, I’ve kind of become known as the guy who immediately begins to research topics within the context of the current conversation.

During a recent “virtual” happy hour with friends we started talking about the field of corn sculptures in Dublin, Ohio (yes, I know it’s weird. Try living near it) and wondered about the artist, why he decided on corn as his inspiration, and if there was any specific significance to the fact there are 109 ears of the human-sized ears of corn.

Some quick Googling and I learned that the corn was supposed to signify the area’s agricultural past, that each ear of corn is 6-feet tall and weighs 1,500 lbs. I also learned that there were only three different concrete molds of the corn — they attempted to make them all look unique by the angle and rotation at which they were arranged and the sequence in which they are aligned.

Even with my research I could not find any recorded reason for the magic number of 109. I could have simply given up and let it remain a mystery, but the only remaining way to find the answer was to find someone to ask — and who better than the artist himself.

So, today I dashed off an email to Malcolm Cochran the artist responsible for our giant local crop of concrete corn and asked him if there was any specific reason he chose the number 109.

I haven’t yet received a reply, but when/if I do… would you like to know the reason as well?

If so… all you have to do is ask.